ALL EUROPE TO BENEFIT FROM SOUTH STREAM
Pyotr Iskenderov
en.fondsk.ru
14.03.2009
The signing of the agreement on Hungary’s joining the South Stream
project in Moscow this week constitutes an important step in the
implementation of the unprecedented energy initiative which is
sure to benefit the Balkans and entire Europe. Likewise deals with
Slovenia and a number of other countries are expected in the nearest
future. Moreover, there are indications that several countries whose
involvement was not planned originally – Bosnia and Herzegovina,
Montenegro, and even Albany – will also choose to participate. Not
surprisingly, the pro-opposition Albanian Gazeta Shqiptare has reacted
to the expectations by featuring papers expressions of concern over
the possibility of the West’s "strategic pact" with Russia that would
allegedly perpetuate Russia’s energy monopoly…
Hungarian Prime Minister Ferenc Gyurcsany told the media on March 10
that if the process unfolds as planned the South Stream construction
would be complete by 2015. The statement expresses more than just
Hungary’s own expectations, as the country is taking an increasingly
important role in the energy politics of Central and South-East
Europe. Currently Russia supplies natural gas to Serbia, Montenegro,
and Bosnia and Herzegovina across the territory of Hungary. Budapest’s
position is traditionally respected in Austria, Serbia, Bosnia and
Herzegovina, and=2 0 other countries of the region whose ties with
Hungary are deeply rooted in history.
The recent conflict between Russia and Ukraine over the gas transit
across the territory of the latter as well as the complications bred by
the global financial crisis highlighted the importance of elaborating
new approaches and schemes to ensure the European energy security. In
this respect, the interests of Russia and the Balkan countries merge
harmonically, and Russia is motivated not by the alleged "quest for
energy monopoly" but by normal economic considerations pertinent to
risk reduction, transit reliability, and profits.
Explainably, the South Stream is one of the most divisive issues in
today’s Europe. The Brussels bureaucracy and financial structures favor
an alternative – the Nabucco project, a transit route bypassing both
Russia and Ukraine. Russian Prime Minister V. Putin says there are
more questions than answerers concerning Nabucco. Meeting Hungarian
Prime Minister Gyurcsany he stressed that Nabucco is no solution for
a wide range of reasons. The Nabucco route does circumvent Ukraine,
but it passes across Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Georgia – overall a
greater number of countries than the currently existing pipelines
do. Besides, Nabucco is going to lack the resource base adequate to
its transit capacities unless the project is joined, for example,
by Iran, but this is politically problematic. The last but not the
least pertinen t circumstance is that the South Stream is several
billion Euro cheaper than Nabucco.
In the above context the cooperation between the Balkan countries and
Russia in the energy sphere is strategically important and beneficial
to all European consumers. President of the economic Council of the
Democratic Party of Serbia Nenad Popovic opines that this is the
reason why Russian energy projects meet with such serious opposition
in Europe. In 2008 Serbia was among the first countries to join the
South Stream project. In our conversation Popovic said that influential
forces both in national administrations of the EU countries and in
Brussels are ready to sacrifice Europe’s energy security to their own
interests: "There are several lobbies of the kind. The most powerful
and dangerous one has close ties with two major energy companies from
the EU countries neighboring Serbia".
Obviously he meant the Hungarian MOL and the Austrian OMV
group. Throughout 2008 they have been struggling against the energy
deal between Russia and Serbia drawing the latter into the South
Stream project and allowing Russia’s Gazprom Neft to buy Serbia’s
NIS. Popovic says the two companies are monopolies and their objective
is to get rid of Gazprom as the competitor. Their strategy is to buy
the Balkan oil refineries and other energy infrastructures – even
if they are overpriced – just to have them shut down subsequently to
eliminate comp etition. Currently they are doing all they can to bar
Gazprom and the Russian money in general from Serbia and other Balkan
countries where Russian players have legitimate interests. "But the
national interests do prevail", says Popovic.
His colleague from Vojvodina, Deputy President of the autonomy’s
parliament Igor Mirovic sees the situation in the same light. In
our recent conversation he said: "I regard Russian investments as an
opportunity for the entire Balkan region. For us, the deal between
Serbia and Russia will make it possible to construct new generating
capacities such as hydro-stations and gas-powered co-generation
plants. I have already discussed the possibility with representatives
of Russia’s Tekhnopromexport.
The agreement opens Serbia for other Russian companies including those
from the financial sector. By getting linked to the South Stream and
constructing the Banatski Dvor natural gas storage facility jointly
with Russia our country will switch from the role of a major gas
importer to that of the regional leader in gas distribution. Serbia
can and should go further in its cooperation with Russia. Similar
schemes might be realized in selling Serbia’s electric equipment and
railroad companies and in restoring the country’s military technology
potential, which was originally based on Russian standards and suffered
severe damage during the 1999 NATO air strikes. Having worked in the
economic administration and the financial sector for twenty years I
am convinced that Russian investments will be extremely beneficial to
Serbia’s economy. It took many European nations – for example, Bulgaria
and Germany – the recent gas crisis to appreciate the importance
of eliminating Ukraine’s transit monopoly. This objective can be
accomplished by realizing the Russian South Stream and the Nord Stream
pipeline construction projects". A perfectly adequate explanation…